Standard building type 10

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The standard building type 10 is a frequently built bunker type of the west wall . These bunkers were built during the Limes program of 1938. A total of 3471 systems of this standard building type were built on the entire Siegfried Line.

construction

Courtyard side of bunker 132 with the entrances to the group room

The bunker is a so-called group shelter with an attached fighting room and consisted of two separate rooms. On the one hand there was a group room in which the soldiers could stay in readiness and sleep, and a combat room, which was equipped with a machine gun and served to defend the bunker.

The group shelter, in which 15 soldiers could be placed on standby, had a rear-facing stair notch to secure the entrance, which, like other defensive notches at the entrances , were intended for carbines .

The combat area was equipped with an MG34 machine gun permanently installed on a carriage , with which the bunker could be defended through a flanking and frontal notch.

The walls and ceilings had a thickness of 1.5 m and thus corresponded to the expansion thickness B of the Limes program. The bunkers had a size of 8.9 mx 11.1 m.

Furnishing

All bunkers had a connection to a fortress telephone network , through which the crews of several bunkers could talk to one another via field telephones . There was a mouthpiece to communicate between the fighting and group rooms .

Beds for the soldiers were installed on the walls of the ready rooms. In the event that the soldiers could no longer leave the bunker, there was an emergency exit, which consisted of a tube leading to the top of the bunker.

All bunkers were gas-safe and therefore had a gas-safe furnace, the exhaust gases of which were discharged through a smoke pipe leading to the outside. The smoke pipe was closed with a massive grille.

Each soldier was given a place to sleep and a stool, and the commanding officer was given a chair.

For camouflage, these bunkers and other bunkers on the Siegfried Line were painted with green camouflage paint.

defects

Even when the bunkers were built, they were no longer state-of-the-art and even then did not withstand all weapons.

In addition, the bunkers were built years before they were used and were therefore also equipped with old mounts. This made it impossible to use the better MG42 instead of the outdated MG34.

Another shortcoming of these bunkers was that the soldiers had to leave the bunker to reach the combat area and were thus briefly unprotected.

Preserved bunkers

There are two well-preserved specimens of this type on the Buhlert in the Hürtgenwald with the numbers 131 and 132. In these bunkers you can even find the original lettering and the green camouflage color can still be seen.

See also

Web links

Commons : Regelbautyp 10  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files